The Life of Akari
by Steph32297l
Summary: Avatar Akari, the Fire Avatar before Yukio, describes her life. It's a spin off of Tales of Yukio, my other fanfic.


Two cycles after Avatar Korra, I was born. I grew up in Yu Dao, where my father was governor. I was a Firebender. A great Firebender. A prodigy, even. My parents were pleased. They were hoping that I was the Avatar, but when the new Avatar was discovered, they lost hope in me. At age thirteen, after I had mastered Firebending, they sent me to the Royal Fire Academy. I became friends with Princess Hania.

The Fire Lord at the time was Femila, who was a master Earthbender. She had planned to teach the Avatar Earthbending, but when she tried, the boy showed no progress. Femila was discouraged and assumed that there was a spiritual problem within him. She sent the boy to the best healers in the world, none of which could heal him. But then, one healer discovered the block.

The Fire Lord was furious when the healer discovered that Lee was not the Avatar. She showed compassion upon him for his innocence, but imprisoned the people who were in on the plot. Lee was still an excellent Firebender, so she recruited him to be her personal body guard. And years later, Lee became my husband.

In the meantime, she tested any Firebender who was sixteen years old. The last person she would have expected was timid, yet stoic Akari. She was expecting a boy to be the Fire Avatar, since the past three Fire Avatars were males. But there I was, Avatar Akari. And the day she discovered me, I was whisked into the palace and given a place of power. I was consulted about everything from finances, to the type of hand soap in the government buildings.

When Femila was killed, I was twenty-two. And that was the first time I went into the Avatar state. I killed the man who killed her. He was an assassin who shot an arrow from a crossbow into her head. I didn't leave her side until she died. It was a long painful death, unfortunately. Hania and I held Femila's hands as she died. Femila's dying wish was that Hania become Fire Lord. And Hania was crowned the next day.

It was then that I learned about Hyun-Ki. I had completely ignored the spiritual aspect of the Avatar's duties. So I spent the next year mastering Airbending and being in silent reverence for myself and being in awe of the Spirits within me. I met hundreds of Avatars that year. They all had unique stories. I identified with Avatar Kyoshi very well and sought her guidance very often.

After I mastered Airbending, I returned to the Fire Nation. I was welcomed back as a hero; a savior to my people. But at my homecoming banquet, delinquents attacked the citizens in Capitol City. All the Firebenders in attendance were excellent, but they couldn't fight of hundreds of men. At first, I was panicked. It was if I had forgotten all my training. So I followed my instincts.

"Hania! Cover me!" I shouted over the sound of people screaming and the supports of the palace crumbling. Hania nodded as I ran through the crowd.

In the front of the palace, there was a large fountain. I knew I could use that, but I chose Earthbending first. I briefly checked my peripheral view to make sure no one was beside me, then I threw my hands on the cobblestone ground that was the palace square. A large wave of earth, about three feet high, rumbled as it rolled underneath the quickly advancing forces. The soldiers all lost their footing and plummeted to the ground.

I then noticed two men coming at me from my left side. I punched a gust of wind at them, knocking them backward several hundred feet. Another man at my right came up to me for hand to hand Firebending. He wasn't very good at it, because as soon as his fist got close to my face, I grabbed his fist and jabbed two fingers into his armpit, which made him drop to ground, chi-blocked.

I then saw a mob of soldiers chasing a beggar. I was about to strike, but then I saw a girl huddled in an alley. She must have been about nine or ten, but she was hugging a baby while a soldier tried to pull the baby out of her arms. I felt helpless. But when I saw that soldier slap that little girl across the face, I lost it.

I didn't remember what happened after that, but Hania described it as an extraordinary demonstration of mastery. She said my eyes lit up and I rose in an orb of blinding blue light and I called to the Ocean and washed each and every Shirshu Gang soldier away. Hania said it was so magnificent and frightening that even she fell to the ground in fear. She said that it was impossible to look away. She said that my wrath against the soldiers was great, but what really surprised her was the mercy I showed by sparing their lives.

And the mercy I showed became my legacy. When the Shirshu gang attacked again in Omashu, I was there to seal off all of their exits without hurting any of them. And later when the Shirshu gang defiled the inside of the Cave of Two Lovers, I sealed the entrances to the cave (after I brought every soldier out) so it was as if it never existed.

My next conquest was to make the Fire Nation Dictatorship more democratic. People could elect the mayor of their city or village instead of the Fire Lord appointing the leader. Fire Lord Hania and I amended our constitution to include the outlawing of soldiers enforcing the law through terror. And those actions brought peace to the people.

There was great peace in the world for the last twenty years of my life. I passed away quietly while Lee, my husband, and Fire Lord Hania held my hands. Then, the Avatar Spirit left my body and inhabited the body of an Air Nomad baby, who was born just as I died. And so the Avatar cycle continues. Air, Water, Earth, Fire.


End file.
